Wales · Partial ruin
Mold Castle
Castell yr Wyddgrug
Mold Castle (Bailey Hill) is a Norman motte-and-bailey earthwork in the centre of Mold, Flintshire. Little above ground survives today apart from the conical motte and the rectangular bailey, now a tree-covered town park. The site sits adjacent to St Mary's Church and is incorporated into public gardens and memorial spaces.
Its prime
1200
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1200
What Mold Castle looked like in its prime.
A single, conical grass-covered motte stands at the centre of a roughly rectangular, tree-lined bailey; the mound is steep-sided and densely planted with mature trees in the present-day photo. A low stone wall runs along the bailey edge and town streets curve around the park; houses and the church sit close by. Paths and ramps ascend the mound and the overall silhouette is an isolated raised earthwork within an urban setting.
Its story
The story of Mold Castle.
A Norman Motte on an Older Earthwork, c.1072
Mold Castle, Castell yr Wyddgrug in Welsh and Bailey Hill in the town of Mold itself, was raised on an existing earthwork in about 1072. The motte and bailey was thrown up possibly by Robert de Montalt, a descendant of Eustace de Monte Alto, a Norman warrior in the service of Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester. The family came out of Monthault in Ille-et-Vilaine, in a Duchy of Brittany that was not then part of France, though it has also been proposed that they took their name from mont haut, high hill, and fixed it to this mound. That name may have been corrupted down the years until it became Mold, so Bailey Hill may have given the town its name.
From Owain Gwynedd to Cromwell's Forces, 1146-1640s
In 1146 the castle was captured by Owain Gwynedd. It switched hands on several occasions after that before a long period under Welsh control during the reign of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, and it remained a defensive structure up until the 13th century. During the English Civil War the town of Mold was captured by the Parliamentarians, recovered by the Royalists, and fell again to Cromwell's forces.
The Mostyns, the Council and Bailey Hill, 1790-2022
The site came into the possession of the Mostyn family, who in 1790 surrounded it with a stone wall, planted trees and converted it into a garden. In 1890 it was sold to Mold Council. The council has created a memorial garden honouring the soldiers of Mold who fell in the First World War, which takes in the castle site, and in 1920 the site became a town park, with a bowling green in the inner bailey and tennis courts in the outer. What is visible now is a conical mound, which once carried the motte, enclosed in a rectangular bailey. After the park fell into disrepair it was restored over several years, the work including ramps, a performance space in the inner bailey and an interpretation centre, with a reopening scheduled for April 2022. In the course of that work, excavations in 2020 by the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust revealed the remains of a large masonry wall on the edge of the inner bailey, which could have been part of the fortifications or of an internal building and suggested that the original castle may have been of timber. The earthwork is a scheduled monument and a National Monument of Wales.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1200.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Mold Castle, including 1 interior: location of the later interpretation centre (edge of bailey). Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Mold Castle.
The families that held Mold Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Montalt
Robert de Montalt probably raised the motte c.1072, in the service of the Earls of Chester.
Mostyn
The Mostyns held Bailey Hill, walling and planting it as a garden in 1790, until its sale to Mold Council in 1890.
Nearby
